Up to 67% Bonus & 10% Off When You Purchase AAdvantage Miles

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Buy miles at the cheapest rate — and earn the biggest bonus — by buying 150,000 AA miles.

Here’s how it works: You can earn up to 100,000 bonus miles and save 10% off when you buy or gift AAdvantage miles. You’ll earn the maximum ~67% bonus (100,000 miles) when you purchase the maximum amount of 150,000 miles. Or, you can earn up to a ~56% bonus (70,000 miles) for buying 126,000 miles. You can even earn a ~23% bonus (2,500 miles) for buying as little as 11,000 miles.

The regular price for buying miles from American is 3.17 cents per mile ($29.50 per 1,000 miles plus a 7.5% Federal Excise Tax) — before a $30 processing charge per purchase — but with the maximum ~67% bonus offer, it’ll drop your price down to just 1.72 cents per mile.

In TPG’s most recent valuations, he pegs American miles at 1.5 cents apiece. The maximum bonus brings your price down to just 1.72 cents per mile, so this promo wouldn’t seem worth it at first.

Remember that 1.72 cents per mile is the “sticker” rate. You can get an even lower effective rate when you factor in the miles that you’ll earn from purchasing the miles. If you have certain American Airlines credit cards, you’ll also earn a 10% rebate on redeemed miles — stretching the miles you redeem even further.

Economy

Use can use your miles to fly the American Airlines 787 Dreamliner — internationally or even domestically.

If you have a qualifying credit card, you can use AA’s reduced mileage awards to fly to dozens of destinations throughout the US and Canada for just $301 round-trip in economy (17,500 miles x 1.72 cents per mile).

After AA’s March devaluation, AA miles are less valuable for business and first-class redemptions. However, if you’re only looking to redeem for first/business class, don’t write off American Airlines miles. You can still get plenty of value for certain business/first-class redemptions.

Fly American Airlines’ signature 777-300ER business class to Europe. This route costs 115,000 AAdvantage miles round-trip, or less than $2,000 (before tax) if purchasing miles at 1.72 cents per mile.

As with economy, the value proposition is much better if you need to book international one-way flights. Take American Airlines’ nonstop from Los Angeles (LAX) to London (LHR): American Airlines is charging $9,618 one-way every day between now and May 2017! But, if you can find award availability, it’ll cost just 57,500 AA miles + $5.60 when using AA miles. This is a total price of less than $1,000 if you’re buying miles at 1.72 cents per mile.

Thanks to the lounge access on the Citi Prestige Card, you can enjoy your AA redemptions even more.

Plus, you’ll get 50,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 within three months of opening your account. Thanks to the 1.6 cents per point redemption rate for American Airlines flights, this sign-up bonus will get you $800 in free AA flights. The $250 per calendar year air travel credit, hotel 4th Night Free and $100 Global Entry credit can easily justify the $450 annual fee.

Bottom Line

Even at the very low rate of 1.72 cents per mile, buying miles speculatively doesn’t make sense in most situations. However, this might make sense for some travelers (i.e., business/first-class travelers or those who book one-way flights).

Due to the low bonus miles offered at most purchase levels, it likely only makes sense to buy the maximum number of miles — unless you need just a few more miles to top off your account for a certain redemption.

Editorial Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

Disclaimer: The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

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Editorial Note: Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.